Thursday, June 16, 2011

Sometime in the mid nineties I had Frank and Ollie, their wives Jeanette and Marie, as well as Joe Grant over to my house for dinner.

I don't think I need to introduce Joe to you. Let me just say that Disney Animation

was lucky to have him return to the studio in 1989.

Joe had been at Disney before, way back, working in story and Vis Dev on films like Fantasia, Dumbo and a few others.

The photo shows them engaged in a conversation before dinner.

Joe had told me about a phone call he had received from Frank Thomas soon after his return to Disney. Frank asked : "Joe, after all these years, why the heck are you back at Disney ?" Joe simply replied: "Why aren't you ?".

Joe had a wonderful, dry sense of humor, and all who knew him really miss him.

And we miss Frank and Ollie as much. Those were great times, when you could call these guys and ask :" Hey, are you up for dinner on Friday ?" "Sure !"

The rough drawing of Captain Hook and Smee is by Frank.

You can see how involved it is, Frank searching for the right composition that would bring out both of their personalities.

Ollie's Three Fairies on the other hand show a light touch. After thinking about a scene a lot, Ollie then trusted his instincts for the animation.